Thursday’s recap: Huge division showdowns

St. Joseph High School boys basketball coach Dave Turco earned his 300th career victory in convincing fashion Thursday night, as Quenton Decosey posted a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds en route to a 64-30 beating of Perth Amboy. St. Joseph led 42-8 at halftime.

It was his 138th win at the Metuchen school. Turco coached previously at Carteret.

Both teams are 5-2 overall and 4-1 in the GMC Red Division. South Brunswick led 28-19 at the half.

Ukawuba finished with 13 points for the Bears, who host St. Anthony on Sunday.

COLONIA 61, J.P. STEVENS 60Junior forward Bleriot Thompson’s rebound and put-back attempt went through the net at the buzzer and made a winner out of Colonia.

In the game’s waning seconds, Colonia senior wing Jordan McDaniel missed a possible go-ahead jumper that was rebounded by J.P. Stevens. Thompson, however, dove onto the floor and forced a jump ball with the possession arrow favoring the Patriots.

Colonia then called timeout to set up an inbounds play with four seconds showing on the clock.

Senior guard Trent Barneys threw the in-bounds pass to McDaniel, who came free off of a screen underneath the basket, but his layup attempt was no good. Thompson corralled the rebound and dumped in the game-winner at the horn.

PISCATAWAY 75, OLD BRIDGE 48Junior guard Marcus Freeney dumped in 20 points and had four steals and senior guard Jelani Jackson notched six points and 10 assists to power Piscataway. The Chiefs (5-3) used their trademark balanced attack as 11 players finished in the scoring column and they outscored Old Bridge in every quarter. For the Knights (1-7), junior forward Fulton Aminu dropped in 18 and sophomore guard Tyler Drews had 15.

NORTH BRUNSWICK 63, SOUTH PLAINFIELD 33Dion Rodgers netted 14 points for the Raiders. Iverson Flemming recorded 12 points while Kahi Blackwell chipped in with 10 for North Brunswick (6-2). Claude Payne led South Plainfield (0-7) with 11 points.

ROSELLE 57, NEW PROVIDENCE 50Mike Marchesano scored 24 points, while teammate Dave Barletta recorded 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Pioneers (3-4), who never led.

PARSIPPANY CHRISTIAN 57, PINGRY 52Pingry stormed back from 15 points down and tied the game with two minutes left in the game only to fall short. Senior guard Mike Supron led the Big Blue (0-6) with 21 points and senior forward Justin Shangold had 12 and eight rebounds.

ELIZABETH 46, WESTFIELD 39Senior center Aswad Tuner led the way for the Blue Devils with 16 points. Senior guard Nate Mitchell also finished in double figures for Westfield (2-5) with 10.

About Joe Martino

Joe Martino has covered Central Jersey news and sports for the Courier News and Home News Tribune since 2009. Currently, he’s an innovative member of the MyCentralJersey.com online news team. He’s lived in Bridgewater his entire life and is a graduate of Ramapo College.

One Response to Thursday’s recap: Huge division showdowns

Question? Why is that New Brunswick is a local school and get very little publicity. Looking at todays website and in thnt nothing was mentioned about the boys win? There was no problem making it known that the girls LOST !!!

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The inside story on Central Jersey high school boys basketball

About the Author

Joe MartinoJoe Martino has covered Central Jersey news and sports for the Courier News and Home News Tribune since 2009. Currently, he’s an innovative member of the MyCentralJersey.com online news team. He’s lived in Bridgewater his entire life and is a graduate of Ramapo College.E-mail Joe

Mike BeckerMike Becker is a graduate of Rutgers University. He has been working at the Home News Tribune since the spring of 2011. During his time at Rutgers, he covered the school's football, and both the men's and women's basketball teams, for WRSU-FM.E-mail Mike